Bill would mandate ethnic studies in Calif.
By Roque Planas, Huffington Post
A bill introduced last month by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Salinas, would require the California’s Department of Education to develop a model for implementing a standardized, statewide ethnic studies curriculum for high schools.
Although controversies over Mexican-American studies have roiled conservatives in Southwestern states, Alejo’s bill could put California on the path to adopting one of the most ambitious ethnic studies program for public schools in the country.
Latinos are the largest ethnic group in California schools by far, making up 53 percent of the student body, according to the California Department of Education. They are followed by non-Hispanic whites, at 26 percent, and Asians, at 9 percent.
It used to be called History, IMHO.
I have an idea, how about we pass a law that requires school’s to teach American studies! God forbid they do that… California, what a joke.
dumbfounded, That is true to some extent, but history in my day was taught almost exclusively through the lens of old white guys. Unlike other old white guys (now I are one), I clearly see the bias. As an example, this weekend I was in Colorado Springs and toured the Air Force Academy. While my wife and I were exploring the chapel (a very cool architectural design IMHO) we ran into to someone (a middle-aged white guy from the mid-west), he was wondering why there was a Buddhist temple downstairs since it he was adamant that it was a philosophy and not a religion. It was sad how misinformed he was – but that is history through an old white guy lens.
Rick
Ambitious? You mean “cramming it down our throats”. Figures, some Mexican assemblyman wants to further push them on us. Cali-Lib-Mexico will be the minority (now majority) welfare state, joke of America….or what used to be America. There will be a test later on which can of spray paint or markers work best on trash cans and walls. Fire hydrants should also be included.
Gaspen Aspen I give you a c- as a troll.
I’m not so sure that I want our schools to try different “lenses” to teach history to our children. Especially when it becomes a contest of which Politically-Correct “lens” will be used. Those who decide on which “lens” might just be wearing lenses of their own. Who will decide which lens to use? I don’t like experimenting with children or history. Although the idea of viewing History through a lens is not particularly bad, views can get distorted with too many lenses. History has always been written by the victors. But that is just my opinion.
Yeah boy howdy this is going to be a divisive issue…I agree an enlightened, expanded history should be taught(sorry YEC’s you’re view only gets 3/5ths of a vote on this, because of your insistence on using your view to enslave and kill people of other views and take their lands and cultures-if you don’t like that, take a good hard look at Christianity’s history of barbaric conquest). It is important to remember that official history has always been written by the conquerors, complete with THEIR worldview as the dominant paradigm, and the conquered tend to dream of a savior to rescue them. The challenge is to not impose vengeance on you slave-masters when your savior finally comes. As populations, personalities, information and sentiments shift the power dynamic, and the spin on historical events also shifts. Always has been, always will be. It is about who gets to sit at the table, and who gets the scraps from the table. And…like it or not, who gets sacrificed, cut up, cooked and eaten at the table.
@dumbfounded…I hear what you’re saying. I think it’s important to remember that ANY view, EVERY view, is a lens. The current lens is still a lens. We allow corporations to experiment on our children at every level…from products to chemicals to advertising to self-definition through consumption. I don’t think we can raise people in a vacuum…we have to make the best with what we got, speak truth to misinformation, live by a good moral code…try to leave something for the children to have. As Gibran says, and I quote-
“Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.”
We have a job of shepherding, not indoctrinating, future generations. In my opinion. Blessed Be.